Abstract of the paper ``Seismic wave attenuation in fluid-saturated porous media''
Contrary to the traditional view, seismic attenuation in Biot's theory of
fluid-saturated porous media is due to viscous damping of local (not
global) pore-fluid motion. Since substantial inhomogeneities
in fluid permeability of porous geological materials are to be expected, the
regions of highest local permeability contribute most to the wave energy
dissipation while those of lowest permeability dominate the fluid flow rate
if they are uniformly distributed. This dichotomy can explain some of the
observed discrepancies between computed and measured attenuation of
compressional and shear waves in porous earth. One unfortunate consequence
of this result is the fact that measured seismic wave attenuation in
fluid-filled geological materials cannot be used directly as a diagnostic of
the global fluid-flow permeability.
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